Nazi Resistance in the Second World War - Essay Example

Nazi Resistance in world war two (Name) (Module) (Institution) (Course) (Instructor’s Name) 5th Feb 2010 The resistance movement refers to organizations and plans meant to sabotage the Nazi Germany troops in Europe and stall their expansion during the World War II. The resistance movements were organized and carried out mainly by the US and Britain with the collaboration of the already Nazi occupied countries in Europe. The movement played a critical role in defeating Nazi Germany’s military might. The resistance was not carried out openly as it involved the services of secret armies which were assigned duties in a number of countries such as France, Poland and the Czech Republic The army men were involved in collecting intelligence for the allies and sabotage activities such as destroying communication lines, assisting and arranging for the rescue and escape of prisoners of war. However, they were at times forced to openly attack the Germans when necessary. With the US and Britain leading their allies in holding back the advancing Nazi military, they forced tow of the most active secret services during the world war II. Britain was the first to form an intelligence collecting body called The Special Operations Executive's while the US in following Britain’s example formed the Office of the Strategic Services. These two bodies were involved in a number of joint missions and gathered intelligence for the US army which is viewed critical in the final defeat of Nazi Germany. This paper will thus discuss the collaboration between the OSS and SOE during the world war II in several missions and also look into the modern events that have brought the US and Britain together in warfare. The resistance movement did not begin with the formation of the OSS and SOE; there were several resistance acts ad movements which did not have the military capacity or government support to make any impact though they could gather intelligence information for the allies. The overwhelming Blitzkrieg attacks of 1939 to 1941 that saw the occupation of Poland, Norway, Western Europe and Russia caught the involved countries unaware. The Nazi military however, appreciated the presence of resistance though the termed as just “irritating” with no significant impact on the Nazi military plans. As such, another operation was nicknamed operation Barbarossa, which involved an attack on Russia, was carried out in June 1941. This action called for some response from the Russian army and the allies. This marked the active involvement of the SOE and the OSS (Smith, 1983). The formation of Special Operations Executive as a secret service was ordered by the then British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, to "set Europe ablaze" (Cookridge 1969, 1). This Special force was charged with the task of linking and bringing together all the resistance movements, especially in France which had numerous resistance groups, to destabilize the Germans in the countries they had occupied. This force was placed under the Ministry of Economic Warfare which was headed Dr Dalton who interestingly was not a member of the war cabinet. As such, he faced some restrictions in meeting with the Prime Minister. Again his lack of inclusion in the war cabinet denied him the know-how in the progress of the war. Again, the man lacked experience in war and military matters. Consequently, he laid out unrealistic targets for the force. For instance, the SOE sent to the Chiefs-of-Staff, requested equipment for Europe's resistance movements that would have taken six months alone to transport by air. Due to Dalton’s inexperience in war, he still had the different factions in various countries supported by the SOE individually though the SOE was supposed to organize them into one. This plan was faced with many challenges since communication was kept at the minimum in fear of interception by the Nazi military which also had secret forces on the ground. By the end of 1941, the SOE realized the potential behind organizing the secret armies and resistance groups of occupied Europe as a mass instead of the preexisting plan which grouped them in blocks according to country. By May 1945, the movement had made remarkable development in increased organization, centralization and planning (SIS website). As Britain basked in the growing success of the SOE, the US was concerned about Britain’s ability to withstand the Nazi pressure. As such, the then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent Colonel William J. Donovan to investigate the military and intelligence situation in Britain. On visiting Britain, the man was impressed by the work of the SOE. On his return, he conveyed his impression to the president. He recommended the formation of such as similar body whose intent was collecting intelligent information for the US military and government. Consequently, the Office of the Strategic Services, or the (OSS), was formed on June 13, 1942. This was basically an American version of the SOE which was headed by the man who brought forward the idea, Colonel William J. Donovan (Smith, 2005: CIA website). Customarily, the US government allotted intelligence matters to the Department of State and the armed services which was responsible for handling foreign policy matters. However the manner through which this department collected intelligence information was ineffective and unethical. Attaches and diplomats were charged with the task of collecting foreign intelligence, mostly in the course of official business but seldom in secret meetings with secret contacts (Smith 2005). The main organs in intelligence information collection were Office of Naval Intelligence (O.N.I.), the army's Intelligence Division (M.I.D.), and the Military Intelligence Service (M.I.S.). Though these agencies were directly linked to the military division, they were usually small and under-funded making them ineffective and too small for the unfolding events, namely the Second World War. Again, these agencies were no coordinated and their objectives and goals were not aligned. Initially, this was not considered a big issue until the Roosevelt Administration felt the necessity to intervene in the war by [preventing the Nazi military from ‘taking over the world’ as was the plan. The formation of the OSS was thus a confirmation of the American involvement in the Second World War (Smith 2005; Smith 1983). Therefore, the creation of the OSS attracted a lot of resistance from the traditional intelligence bodies such as the FBI and the War Departments Military Intelligence Division also known as G-2 through their various agencies as aforementioned. They didn't like the idea of this newly formed rag-tag organization which wielded a lot of power than their agencies. However, once they failed to convince the administration on the need to disband the OSS, the resisting forces such as the FBI posed themselves to take over the OSS. There was a lot of debate on where to place the OSS. Donovan, as the leader of the OSS fancied the idea of placing the agency under the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Central Office of Information (COI) so that he would gain access to military resources. Another consideration in the debate was that the President wanted to keep the COI's Foreign Information Service out of military influence as it was involved in white propaganda for the COI via radio broadcasting. The OSS had many different offices and branches that changed throughout the war. Some of the main branches of the OSS included Special Operations (SO), Secret Intelligence (SI), Research and Analysis (R&A) and the X-2 branch, which was involved in counterintelligence operations. Each of these branches was served with a particular role though they all had their functions harmonized by the central office. The R&A, which comprised around 900 scholars, was charged with mapping out Axis strengths and vulnerabilities. They relied on newspapers, libraries and government and industry information to gather useful information. For instance, they identified the most strategic and importance aircraft factories and oil facilities which were to be attacked by the allied forces (Smith 2005). The Secret Intelligence Branch (SI) was organized like any modern day intelligence organization. They gave weight on human intelligence, spying and espionage. The SI operatives were supposed to establish contacts in Nazi occupied countries as well as in others. Since it was nearly impossible to penetrate Nazi Germany, the operatives were charged with creating doubles of POWS that penetrate the Nazi military and leak out information to the operatives. This was very risky as a number of the doubles were discovered to be leaking information out and were killed (Dee 2006). The other major branch, the Special Operations Branch (SO) worked very closely with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). In fact much of the collaboration in several missions between the OSS and SOE were in fact the SO branch and SOE. This branch was the user of the intelligence information collected by other branches as it was involved in offensive activities. They carried out guerrilla operations and sabotage behind enemy lines. To gain access, they used the most innocent situations. In fact they vigorously used women to achieve their objectives. For instance Virginia Hall is well known for being the first American operative in Nazi occupied France. She synchronized a number of secret operations with the French resistance (Cookridge 1969). The X-2 branch marked another point of collaboration between the OSS and SOE. This branch was formed in part to share in vital ULTRA intercepts with the SOE and other British forces. The SOE has better resources for intercepts which they used in exchange of collaboration in counterintelligence operations abroad. Through ULTRA the SOE was able to seize all German spies in Britain. One group within the X-2 branch which made X-2 very successful was the secret Insurance Intelligence Unit. "The unit mined standard insurance records for blueprints of bomb plants, timetables of tide changes, and thousands of other details about targets, from a brewery in Bangkok to a candy company in Bergedorf, Germany." "They knew which factories to burn, which bridges to blow up, and which cargo ships could be sunk in good conscience" (Fritz 1). The "Jedburgh" mission is one of the most successful missions carried out jointly by the SOE and OSS (through the SO). This mission involved sabotaging Nazi mission in Nazi occupied countries in Europe with France and Holland being the main focus. The mission involved teams of agents that parachuting into France before the Normandy landings took place. Together with the French resistance they aided in the success of D-Day by running small operations and providing an effective diversion. The Jedburgh operation involved the Allied governments calling for volunteers to carry out ‘hazardous duty” without their knowledge that they were signing up for the Jedburgh mission. The Jeds as they were popularly known were charged with blowing up bridge in the enemy territory and destroying communication lines. However, they were also supposed to protect the same for use by the allied forces. There were 91 Jedburgh teams that operated in 54 French metropolitan departments between June and December 1944. Each team was made up of three members; a leader, an executive officer, and a non-commissioned radio operator. One of the officers was either British or American while the host country citizen (Smith 2005). With the end of the World War 2 the OSS was dismantled by President Truman amid much protest from high ranking government officials and from the political class. In its placed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was formed. A look at the mood in Washington, however, places Truman’s decision in a more favorable light. At the onset of the postwar era, the nation and Congress wanted demobilization fast. OSS was already marked for huge reductions because so many of its personnel served with guerrilla, commando, and propaganda units considered extraneous in peacetime. Congress regarded OSS as a temporary ‘war agency,’ one of many bureaucratic hybrids raised for the national emergency that would have to be weeded out after victory. Indeed, early in 1945 Congress passed a law requiring the White House to seek a specific Congressional appropriation for any new agency operating for longer than 12 months. This obstacle impeded any Presidential wish to preserve OSS or to create a permanent peace time intelligence agency along the lines of General Donovan’s plan- a path made even slicker by innuendo, spread by Donovan’s rivals, that the General was urging the creation of an American Gestapo (Smith 1983: Smith 2005). The SOE was also abolished with the end of the World War 2. However, this did not imply the end of the need to collect and gather intelligence information as there was still global tension in the form of the cold war. The British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) popularly known was M16 was formed. During the Cold war, the US and the UK were involved in number of intelligence information collection missions taken up by their respective bodies. Such missions have not been open and often classified as highly sensitive and explosive. In one of the most controversial missions, operation TPAJAX, the CIA and the M16 organized for a coup to topple the Mossadeq led government of Iran. This was prompted by nationalization of major oil fields in Iraq by the government. The M16 with the help of the CIA organized for a coup so that they could put in place a government that would favor the British oil companies operating in Iran (Afkhami 2009; Dee 2006). The proliferation of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction has re-awakened the need for sharing of intelligence by the British government and the American one through their respective intelligence bodies. Such a trend being so obvious during the second world trails back to the World War I according to Spillius (2009). He says that in earlier relations, the two were brought together by the need to win the first and the second word war, then communism. In the latest acts of sharing intelligence, the two allies are bent on fighting global terrorism and protecting freedoms of the people. The global environment is full of many threats though terrorism has taken centre stage. The US has thus categorised its intelligence agencies into different bodies. The most conscious is the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) which was established in May 2003 as a way of integrating terrorist threat intelligence information collected all over the world. This agency falls under the department of Homeland security. It works hand in hand with the M16. TTIC together with M16 have for instance recommended the strengthening of Arab nations facing the terrorism threat so that they can fight the threat on their own. Consequently countries such as Pakistan, Lebanon and Yemen are receiving more military aid from the US and Britain (Reuters, 2010). The relationship between Britain and the US is to a large extent on military aspects rather than trade given that Canada and Mexico have higher trade relations with the US than Britain (Stafford & Jeffreys-Jones 2000). As such, their relationship is founded on controlling their strategic partners in trade. The US is willing and ready to assist Britain attain its objectives in trade and foreign policy through collaboration in military and intelligence activities and vice versa. This has solidified their relationship which mutually beneficial. An attack on Iraq presumably to seize weapons of mass destruction was also aimed at securing oil reserves fro US companies. As a friend of the US, Britain was the first announce its support for the invasion and also send troops for the same cause. During the first and second world wars, the US needed a strong Britain to cushion itself from the USSR and Nazi Germany. In modern times, the US requires a powerful partner more so given the rise of Communist China. Given that the two have remained true to each other of the years, the two will remain good partners in sharing intelligence information. References Afkhami, G. (2009). The life and times of the Shah, Los Angeles: University of California Press, Cookridge, (1969). Set Europe ablaze: the story of special operations in Western Europe, 1940-45, London: Pan Books Dee, I. (2006). Safe for democracy: the secret wars of the CIA, Boston: the University of Michigan Fritz (2000). The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men Los Angeles Times 22/9/2000. http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/22/news/mn-25118 Official CIA website https://www.cia.gov/ Official SIS website, http://www.sis.gov.uk/output/sis-home-welcome.html Reuters, (2010). Britain, U.S. To Fund Yemen Anti-Terror Unit http://www.rferl.org/content/Britain_US_To_Fund_Yemen_AntiTerror_Unit/1919757.html Stafford, D. & Jeffreys-Jones, R. (2000) American-British-Canadian intelligence relations, 1939-2000, London: Routledge Smith, B. (1983). The shadow warriors: O.S.S. and the origins of the C.I.A., New York: Basic Books Smith, R. (2005). OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency, New York: Lyons Press Spillius, A. (2009). Intelligence sharing between Britain and the United States dates back to First World War. The Telegraph 5/02/2009. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4514938/Intelligence-sharing-between-Britain-and-the-United-States-dates-back-to-First-World-War.html Read More